


Flowerpots

by Carmila



Category: Elisabeth - Levay/Kunze, Takarazuka Revue RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 06:12:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1376779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmila/pseuds/Carmila
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Persistence probably came with being immortal, but right now, Lucheni found it nothing but annoying. He wouldn't have thought that babysitting the 'younger' incarnations of his master would be this taxing, they were freaking death incarnate, you could expect a little conduct, a little …. dignity from them! But once more, the universe had decided to show him the middle finger, figuratively speaking. Dignity obviously was outdated, and had been replaced by over-indulgence.<br/>Last time, last time it had been all fun and dandy. He was all for the universe letting death experience the sensation of living when it meant tending to some cute little flowers in their flower pots. No problem, he could do that. (They had not been all to impressed by experiencing photosynthesis, but what did he care?)<br/>But in the blink of an eye, a hundred years had passed, and this time this gigantic asshole named karma had decided to let them incarnate as humans, of all possibilities in the whole world! You'd think there was someting more creative than that, but no.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flowerpots

Death wasn't the worst thing that could happen to you, or so Lucheni liked to believe. He had died, and it hadn't been all that bad, at least until....   
  
„So tell me again why exactly you kidnapped the damn cat.“  
„I didn't kidnap it, you got it all wrong.“ 

Persistence probably came with being immortal, but right now, Lucheni found it nothing but annoying. He wouldn't have thought that babysitting the 'younger' incarnations of his master would be this taxing, they were freaking death incarnate, you could expect a little conduct, a little …. dignity from them! But once more, the universe had decided to show him the middle finger, figuratively speaking. Dignity obviously was outdated, and had been replaced by over-indulgence.Last time, last time it had been all fun and dandy. He was all for the universe letting death experience the sensation of living when it meant tending to some cute little flowers in their flower pots. No problem, he could do that. (They had not been all to impressed by experiencing photosynthesis, but what did he care?)  
But in the blink of an eye, a hundred years had passed, and this time this gigantic asshole named karma had decided to let them incarnate as humans, of all possibilities in the whole world! You'd think there was someting more creative than that, but no.  
Lucheni had grown up in a time of monarchies, of kids literally being born with a freaking golden spoon in their mouths, but he had never seen bigger brats than those four. Never.

„You kidnapped the cat. We did not have a cat before you came back home today, and I am quite sure you didn't buy it, right?“   
  
Quite a know-it-all, that one. An unexpected and rather annyoing side of this particular Todling. (He had come up with that term when they had been incarnated as plants last time, since they were saplings of the Tod he called his master, more or less, and he thought it to be a rather brilliant word creation, even if no one but him appreciated it.) Lucheni had no clue how exactly the Todlings managed to talk to and about each other normally, when they only called each other 'Tod', but he supposed there were some supernatural powers at play there, to make them aware of who exactly they meant. Lucheni did not have supernatural powers, except for some nifty little tricks that came with being a ghost, and he was rather happy that the universe normally provided the necessary conditions for Tod when he experienced a form of life. The flowers had been in pots back then, instead of laying around somewhere to get munched down by a goat or something, and now that they had become humans, they had been given a whole backstory, a home, and most importantly, names. Names he could use to yell at them; although yelling normally lead to either ignoring or giggling on their part. Back in his day teenagers had not been this bratty, he was sure of it!   
  
„If you'd get your nose out of your freaking fashion magazine long enough to listen to me, you'd have caught by now that I did not kidnap the cat. It followed me. Much like those brainfried jocks do with you.“   
  
If Ayaki was a know-it-all though, Haruno was a snob. A little, entitled monster who seemed to believe his sharp wit and broad knowledge made him better than everyone else, and who seemed to look down on the more physically oriented part of the population. The urge to slap him was strongest for Lucheni when Haruno gave him that look over the rim of his fancy glasses, but even as a spirit, Lucheni had enough of a sense of self preservation not to do that. The boy wouldn't always be human.   
  
„And what kind of creepy thing did you want to do with that cat in the first place, brother? Did you feel like playing a poor man's Frankenstein?“   
„Oh, where did you pick such a smart metaphor up, Ayaki? Did you fall over a book when trying to put on your new shoes? Just so you know, I was trying something. Does Schrödinger's cat ring a bell with you?“

That was another problem Lucheni had encountered frequently in the last days, that the Todlings seemed to have trouble distinguishing between things that were theoretical, and those that could actually happen in reality.   
Whatever that cat was, it seemed to be rather happy on the backrest of Haruno's armchair, the one he hadn't put his legs over because sitting up straight was obviously for losers.   
Feeling the equivalent of a ghostly migraine come up (a strange twitching in the place he still thought of as his head), Lucheni finally decided to put his foot down. „Stop that bickering right now, you two!“   
The effect of him stomping on the floor was probably ruined by the fact that his foot had slipped through the expensive carpet (damn being solid enough to really touch things actually took quiet some effort), but he had the attention of the two junior Tods right now, and if there was anything that could stop them from jumping at each other's throats, it was jumping at him. Now they looked at him like lazy cats, and Lucheni tried his best not to feel too much like a mouse. He was sure that they could smell fear.   
„What is it, Luigi?“ He should never have allowed Haruno to watch The Godfather. Haruno's new favorite sentence in the last days had been the reminder that you should never turn against the family. Ever.  
„Yes, what is it, 'Cheni?“   
And there was the exact reason why Ayaki might be more dangerous than her brothers combined. Because that purr in her voice, and those bedroom eyes had a tendency of making men consider jumping off a cliff to impress her. Lucheni was rather glad that he didn't have blood that could try to rush south anymore.   
He also rather missed being able to gulp to calm his nerves, but he would have to make do with pretending to take a deep breath now.   
„You two should stop that pathetic bitching at each other, and tell me where the hell your two brothers disappeared to!“  
They were thinking about it, Lucheni could see it on their faces. Weighing their options, trying to estimate with how much cockiness they could get away. What made them talk, in the end, was most probably the fear of their 'father', not any respect they held for Lucheni.   
„ … Mizu got suspended, ran away with his new best friend. Ty's his name, I think.“   
Oh Santa Maria, no. Lucheni knew who they were talking about. Some punk with the amazingly bad luck of being named after Tybalt from one of the plays of that god damn english man, and his parents had been right to hate him from the start, that name was well-deserved.   
Not that Lucheni was particularly against playing with knives or stabbing people, a good stab could save you a lot of problems. The problem in this case was that hanging out with this Tybalt could probably result in the Todling in question getting stabbed. He might be an incarnation of Tod and all, but right now he was mortal, and Lucheni would rather not find out what happened when one of the Todlings died before their 'given time' as mortals was up. If he lost one of them, his master would probably find a way of punishing him with something far worse than death.  
„Someone needs to find him!“   
„....You mean someone we can't see through, 'Cheni?“  
Immature giggling, once again. If it was true that hatred turned spirits into fiends, right now would be a damn good time for that to happen.  
„Yes, indeed! So how about you two move your luxurious butts from those cushions and -“   
Lucheni's sentence was interruted by some annoyingly loud music blasting into the appartment from the entrance area, and a minute later a whiteish-green mohawk peeked through the door, followed by Mizu himself just the split of a second after.   
As much as Lucheni wanted to yell at him, he knew he couldn't do it right now. The bad thing about music, or any kind of soundwaves was that they made his 'body', or whatever it was shake quite violently, depending on the intensity of the waves. Needless to say that the Todlings found that rather amusing, they had dubbed it 'Cheni-pudding', and he had to find a way to get back at them for this, somehow!   
„Oi, oi, Lu, no need to shake with happiness just 'cause you get to see me, right?“   
He was going to kill that brat, he so would! If he focused hard enough, he could probably get one of the metal spikes in Mizu's leather jacket to move and poke him in the eye, or something like that....

But Haruno seemed to have something against the music, since he thankfully snatched the remote Mizu appeared to have pocketed just for that stunt, and turned it off again.  
„Mizu, next time come home before Luigi starts fussing like some mother hen and wants us to come looking for you.“   
Instead of giggling, Mizu snorted, not that this necessarily made it better.   
„Where did you leave Ty, Mizu?“   
While Saeko seemed interested, Haruno did his best to make his face look as bored as humanly possible.   
„Who cares? What do you want with him anyway, Mizu?“   
With a grin as smug as if he had discovered a univeral question in life, Mizu let himself fall into the armchair Haruno had occupied before stealing the remote, which send the cat to the floor, hissing and spitting at him. Without a care for that, Mizu put his heavy boots onto the table, as if he needed a special pose to answer those special questions.   
„He's a fun guy to hang out with. And I don't know, he kinda reminds me of someone. Feels as if we've met before, you know?“   
Lucheni swallowed the hint that it was not possible that Mizu had met this Tybalt before, he had only been alive for three days, god damn it all, he knew it would have amounted to nothing. Instead he focused on the task at hand, and that was getting all his ugly ducklings together before their father came to check on them.   
„Okay, okay, you're all here now, but where the fuck is Sena?“   
By now Haruno didn't even try to fake interest in Lucheni anymore, he had crawled behind the couch in search of his cat, probably still puzzling over the Schrödinger problem, and Mizu simply shrugged. It was Ayaki who took a moment to look up from her nails and answer his question.   
„Six feet under.“  
„WHAT?!“   
„Calm down, 'Cheni. He's in his room, watching that show. Six Feet Under, I think. You know how our little special snowflake is.“   
Special snowflake indeed. With that face as if he bore all the pain in the world, and those deep, dark eyes, Sena had the permanent look of a desperate poet, and his clothing choice supported that image. He could probably have had a girl on each finger, if he actually bothered to show some interest in girls. Of course Lucheni couldn't blame Sena for it (he was just a little jealous), the boy had come into existence at a rather depressing time, after the death of Empress Elisabeth and on the brink of a world war. Not like Mizu, who had been the herald of the French Revolution and still liked to be a rebel. Secretly, Lucheni was rather convinced that Sena had turned out such a pretty boy because the master had more or less consciously modelled his face after her, but he would never speak his mind on that matter.   
„Okay.“ It should be impossible for a ghost to feel exhausted, but god knew, he did feel it. „Someone get Sena from his room then, it's almost time for tonight's visit.“  
„Be right back!“  
It was never a good thing when Mizu looked this happy and was actually eager to help, but Lucheni decided to ignore it, and sunk down into the now free armchair. It was highly possible that it would swallow him or he would get stuck halfway, but he didn't really care anymore right now.  
„You brute, let go of me!“   
„Aw, aw, is the little baby upset? You should really come when I call for you.“  
„You didn't call, you asshole!“   
„Though luck!“   
Nope, he absolutely didn't have it in himself to fight that battle now, and Lucheni watched Mizu drag Sena into the room without much compassion. It was probably better not to know what Mizu was humming, and it was interrupted anyway, by another complaint from Sena.   
„Haruno! He's dragging me around like he owns the place!“  
The youngest sibling's complaint to the oldest one about the middle siblings was no new concept for Lucheni, what baffled him was that it always seemed to work, even on someone who thought himself as smart as Haruno did.   
„Mizu, I know you'd love to manhandle Sena, but let go of him or I'll kick your butt.“  
Obviously the simple joy of being defiant did not weigh as heavily as a threat from the oldest brother, and Mizu let go of Sena, not without hissing a 'big brother's darling' at him, Lucheni had heard that perfectly well.  
  
„Luigi, you seem to have taken quite good care of them, they all look really lively today.“  
That damn contraption had indeed trapped him in the cushions, and Lucheni was the last one to turn around, the 'kids', for lack of a better word, had already rushed past him as if he weren't even there. „Uncle Shizuki!“  
Indeed, the terrible uncle himself, instead of the father. But as far as Lucheni knew there was no city about to be destroyed, so what the heck was Shizuki doing here? Last time the guy had been out and about had been the end of bloody Rome!   
The biker (of course the guy always had to appear as some kind of troublemaker, what else?) grinned broadly, like a good uncle bringing presents for his favorite niece and nephews, and winked at them. „I came today because my brother sadly can't, he has to prepare for the arrival of our newest family member. Look.“  
It took Lucheni a while to struggle free from the armchair, which obviously thought ghosts too delicious to let them go, and when he finally managed to peek over the shoulder of the kids, he still was no wiser.   
That was.... a flower. What got them so excited about a flower? And why had Zunko actually spoken of a new family member?  
„.... Shizuki, you aren't telling me he actually grows them in flower pots, are you?“   
Lucheni did'nt even need to see the nod for a drastic realization to dawn on him. There was nothing worse than Tod, especially nothing worse than now... five little Todlings, even if the last one still actually had to blossom.

**Author's Note:**

> A major, major thank you goes to the ever lovely flyxlittlewing for being an amazing beta reader, as well as for restoring my faith in writing recognizable Luchenis. (I love it when I managed to catch a certain potrayal of him~).   
> Thank you for helping me out like this ♥
> 
> This story has been heavily influenced by the works of authors who are far more creative than me, namely Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, in this case. The idea of death as a changing being that is influenced by the way people imagine him (or her), as well as the thought that Death gets to spend a day in the world of the living every so often both come from their works, and have been altered to fit the concept of several Deaths. Or Todlings, as Lucheni would say.   
> (And both Reaper Man and Death: The High Cost of Living are amazing reads, just sayin'.)
> 
> The flower they all looked at is most probably a much larger version of Epiphyllum oxypetalum, known as “Queen of the Night”, while the japanese name 月下美人 (Gekka Bijin) means Beauty under the moonlight.


End file.
